83 and sunny

Greetings from Naples Florida. Day 2 of a week in the sunshine state. To recap, the flight with the two little ones was uneventful...and that's a good thing. Spent day one getting situated. My father in-law, Dale, did a little bait fishing off of the Naples fishing pier and I watched...Chaos. 300 people gunning for all matter of sea life 15 feet off of the water. That evening I decide to wait for the din to settle on the beach and then started flinging a deceiver along the surf. I fished parallel to the beach so as not to hook a tourist with a double haul. I managed one small Jack Crevalle. Once the crowds left completely I turned my focus to deeper water. I immediately started hooking spanish mackerel. The farther I cast the bigger they seemed to be. With the sun setting fast I switched to a crease fly and added two ladyfish to the daily bag.

Day two: Left the resort at 6 am with Dale for a trip into the 10,000 Islands with Captain Aaron from Everglades Angler. We left the marina in his 18' Hewes and found birds working the Bonito in the gulf. We raced out to the fracas and I hooked up soon thereafter. I was fishing an 8 weight with a 100' wf 9wt line and 300 yards of gel-spun backing...most of the backing was in the water when I eventually started gaining line. Blistering runs. Blistering. Well that fished popped off but I did manage to boat two as did Dale on his spinning tackle.

Once the melee died down, we beelined it into the Mangrove Islands and started fishing for the target species of the day, Redfish and Snook. We fished hard and were rewarded with a few Jack Crevalle, Dale brought in a couple sea trout and spooked two decent cruising snook.
I added a decent Spanish Mackerel and we kept searching. Eventually our Guide Aaron said "redfish at 9 o'clock, drop it into the hole in the mangroves." I false casted, hauled and released. "Good" said Aaron, "now strip...strip." 75-80 feet away, the redfish turned and swallowed my EP fly. I caught a redfish. One Redfish spotted, one Redfish caught.



Dale added 2 small snook to the growing roster of boatside attendees. Shortly after I added my first snook.

We ate our lunch, fished a few more islands and motored back to the Marina.

So...not too bad for day two...tomorrow is day three and I plan to be on the beach at 5:30 am for some more fishing. Good night from Naples.